The NT Independent is providing an update of resource news from across the Northern Territory. Highlights this week include the first shipment of iron ore export to Vietnam, TNG securing $140m funding for its Mount Peake project and Thor’s Molyhil project posts substandard assay results, plus more.

First NT shipment of iron ore export sail from Darwin Port to Vietnam

Hoa Phat, trading as Northern Territory Iron Ore, will soon be receiving its first shipment of 57,750 tonnes of iron ore in the port of Dung Quat, Vietnam after the bulk vessel The Harmony sailed off Darwin Port on July 29.

The shipment is the first stage for the Roper Valley iron ore project which is scheduled to export 300,000 tonnes of iron ore from Darwin before year-end.

Stage two of the project includes the resumption of mining in 2023 with plans to transport iron ore to the Darwin Port by rail. After it arrives in Vietnam, Iron Ore will be unloaded and processed by Hoa Phat—the largest steel producer in Vietnam.

The Hoa Phat Group received approval from Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) to buy the Roper Valley iron ore project last year. The iron ore mine was initially developed by Sherwin Iron before its purchase by Hoa Phat. The mine already has around 300,000 tonnes of ore already stockpiled at the site at the time of the purchase.

Arafura puts up $41.5 million for the Nolans project

Arafura Resources (ARU) gets firm pledges to raise $41.5 million to accelerate the development of its Nolans project in the Territory through a placement.

ARU said the additional funding will be utilized for front-end engineering and design work, including tendering activities for the project’s construction contracts. The funds will also be utilized to boost working capital, financing activities and current marketing and sales efforts in Asia, Europe and the US.

The company issued 156.7 million new shares at 26.5 cents each, representing a 17.2 per cent discount from the closing price on August 2. For every two new shares subscribed for, a one-attaching option will be received, exercisable at 34 cents and expiring in 18 months.

The Nolans project is the only neodymium-praseodymium project in Australia that plans to mine and process ore to oxide at a single site.

“Arafura continues to receive significant interest from new and existing institutional investors, which along with our advanced discussions with several major global companies seeking to secure access to neodymium-praseodymium oxide,” ARU managing director Gavin Lockyer said.

 

Thor’s Molyhil project posts substandard assay results

Thor Mining’s (THR) Molyhil critical minerals project in the Territory’s latest drilling results fell short of the visible grade estimates. Assay results of two of the three diamond drill holes are lower than the visible grade estimates which resulted in the samples being resubmitted for analysis using two different analytical techniques.

The Molyhil deposit is 220 kms northeast of Alice Springs within the prospective polymetallic province of the Proterozoic Eastern Arunta Block, in the Territory. Completed last year, the three diamond holes were drilled with totals of 995.4 metres.

THR managing director Nicole Galloway Warland said the results were disappointing but THR is still encouraged by the presence of a 46-metre intersection of magnetite skarn and weakly disseminated tungsten-molybdenum-copper mineralisation.

The samples were re-submitted for analysis using two different analytical techniques with further follow-up using the coarse reject material. The company said further work on the tungsten-molybdenum-copper relationship and grade distribution is warranted.

TNG locks $200m funding for its vanadium-titanium-iron project

TNG has gotten debt backing of up to $200 million from export credit agency Korea Trade Insurance (K-SURE) for its Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project in the Territory. With this, the Mount Peak project secured a total of up to $800 million in conditional letters of support/interest from Australian, German and Korean export credit agencies.

The Mount Peake project is expected to produce up to 6,000tpa of high-purity vanadium pentoxide.

Seen as among the world’s biggest undeveloped vanadium-titanium-iron projects, the project is planned to be developed as a fully integrated single mining and processing operation.

TNG plans to produce up to 6,000tpa of high-purity vanadium pentoxide from the Mount Peake project and aims to develop titanium dioxide pigment and iron ore fines products.

In June this year, the company designated engineering and construction company, Clough, as the lead engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for the project.